1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a keyboard for a keyboard instrument such as an electronic piano, and more particularly to a keyboard having keys, whose base resin contains a pigment and a light scattering agent, and light emitters incorporated in the keyboard. By virtue of the use of the pigment and the light scattering agent, a surface color which confers a refined feature on the keys can be realized, and accordingly a product with an excellent appearance can be attained. Furthermore, by virtue of the blend of the pigment and the light scattering agent, the keys can shine uniformly without a difference in brightness when the light emitters are lighted up, and the keyboard instrument player can fully recognize that the keys shine.
2. Description of the Related Art
A keyboard instrument with a navigator function has been developed conventionally, in which a plurality of keys are arranged so as to be pivotable upward and downward, a plurality of light emitters are arranged under the distal end portions or middle portions of their corresponding keys, and the light emitters are selectively lighted up in accordance with music pre-stored in a memory, thus teaching which keys are to be depressed. Keyboard instruments of this type are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,533, the contents of which are herein incorporated in its entirety by reference.
The plurality of keys on the keyboard of the above-described keyboard instrument include white and black keys, each of which is made of a synthetic resin having a light transmitting property. When the lower surfaces of the keys are illuminated with the light emitted from the light emitters arranged under the keys, part of the illumination light passes through the keys so that the keys are seen bright.
However, in the keyboard of such a keyboard instrument, the light emitters can be viewed through the keys when the light transmittance of the keys is high. The appearance of such a product is not excellent and has a drawback in that the value of the product is lowered accordingly. In contrast, when the light transmittance of the keys is low, the light emitted from the light emitters cannot easily pass through the keys, which entails a drawback in that the keys cannot shine satisfactorily bright. In the case where the luminance of the light emitters is set high in order to permit the keys to shine satisfactorily bright, there is a drawback in that the power consumption is increased.